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Are More Foreign Missionaries 


Needed ? 


BY 


SAMUEL M. ZWEMER 


NEW YORK: 125 East 27th Street . 


STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 
FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 


IQII 


Copyright, 1911, by 


STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT 
FCR FOREIGN MISSIONS 


INTRODUCTORY NOTE 


By reason of his experience as a missionary, 
having labored in Arabia for sixteen years, and 
his knowledge of the work among students, hav- 
ing served as a Secretary of the Student Volunteer 
Movement for more than five years, Dr. Zwemer 
is peculiarly well qualified to discuss the question, 
“ Are more foreign missionaries needed?” Asa 
member of Commission I of the World Mission- 
ary Conference he devoted much time to the 
study of the problem of carrying the Gospel to 
all the world, giving special attention to the un- 
occupied fields. In this paper he states briefly 
the reasons for his conviction that a much larger 
force of missionaries must be sent to the mission 
field if the Church is to do her duty to the un- 
evangelized world. 


FENNELL P. TURNER, 
General Secretary. 


“‘Move to the fore. 
Say not another is fitter than thou, 
Shame to thy shrinking, up, face thy task now. 
Own thyself equal to all a soul may. 
Cease thy evading, God needs thee today. 
Move to the fore. 


“‘Move to the fore. 
God Himself waits and must wait till thou come; 
Men are God’s prophets though ages lie dumb; 
Halts the Christ-kingdom with conquest so near, 
Thou art the cause then, thou soul in the rear, 
Move to the fore.”’ 


ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES 
NEEDED? 


The present demand for missionaries is unprece- 
dented in acuteness and urgency. What seems a 
truism when the law of supply and demand is 
concerned is often called in question in regard to 
the need of more missionaries by those who do 
not take into consideration all the facts of the 
missionary enterprise before which the Church 
to-day stands. The following reasons seem to 
the writer to be conclusive: 

1. More missionaries are needed to fill the 
places of those noble men and women who each 
year die at their posts or who are obliged to give 
up their work because of ill health or advanced 
age. No small number is needed each year to 
fill such vacancies. In some countries the death 
rate is enormous. As those on the firing line 
fall, their places must be filled by recruits. Our 
battle line cannot be allowed to waver or fall 
back because of lack of reénforcements if the 


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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


world is to be evangelized. Just as surely as 
property needs repair, or buildings lost by fire or 
disaster need to be replaced, so surely are we 
obliged to fill up the places made vacant on the 
mission field. 

2. More missionaries are needed if the present 
missionary staff is to be sufficiently increased to 
prevent the break-downs and the deaths of the 
missionaries already on the field. The very suc- 
cess which has attended the labors of the present 
force makes an increase in the staff necessary. 
The work on the mission field is expanding rap- 
idly. The mission staff which to-day is equal to 
its task will to-morrow be overburdened. Fur- 
thermore, it is well known that most of the 
break-downs in health of older missionaries are 
occasioned not so much by climate or environ- 
ment as by the terrific pressure of the unfinished 
task and the tremendous opportunities which the 
workers see on every hand. 

3. More missionaries are needed because of the 
tremendous expansion of the work which has 
been carried on now for a series of years, in some 
cases for decades, at 35,000 mission stations on 

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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


the foreign field. One or two missionaries are 
sufficient to spy out the land or do the work of 
the pioneer. But within a few years their sta- 
tions will call for many more workers as preach- 
ers, teachers, physicians and nurses if the work of 
the pioneers is to be conserved, if the Church is 
to be organized and developed, if workers are to 
be trained and if the demands of a growing Chris- 
tian community are to be adequately met. One 
Livingstone could call attention to Central 
Africa; it requires hundreds of missionaries to 
meet the opportunities created by his life and 
death. Uganda and Blantyre alone need scores 
of workers for the industrial, educational and 
evangelistic development that has taken place at 
these centres. 

4. More missionaries are needed because of 
conditions created by the remarkable successes 
of missions already established. The revivals 
in China and in Korea, the mass movements 
towards Christianity in India, the intellectual un- 
rest in Egypt, the political upheavals in Persia 
and Turkey—each in its own way is a distinct 
call for more workers. 


ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


5. Conditions in mission countries made known 
and laid upon the consciences of the Christian 
Church, forces Christendom to a realization as 
never before of the need of more missionaries. 

The fact that the appalling needs of the 
non-Christian world and the social horrors of 
heathenism and Islam are no longer veiled by 
ignorance or provincialism, but have become an 
open secret through a flood of missionary litera- 
ture and the daily press of Christian lands, is in 
itself a distinct call for more missionaries. The 
Church is no longer unaware of these appalling 
needs, and must therefore meet them or be un- 
true to her trust. 

(a) The physical sufferings of the non-Chris- 
tian world must be relieved and medical mission- 
aries are now urgently needed for fields where 
no medical missionary work was possible twenty 
years ago. 

(b) The intellectual awakening among the 
masses in Eastern and Western Asia is such a 
call for teachers as there has not been since the 
coming of the Great Teacher Himself. His com- 
mand to “go and teach all nations” can now be 

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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


literally fulfilled. An illiterate Christianity is a 
contradiction of terms. We must establish day 
schools and colleges to make the new Christian- 
ity permanent and potent. 

(c) The great social evils of the non-Christian 
world can only be eradicated by social settle- 
ment, and the only social settlement that can 
help uplift the non-Christian world is the mission 
station. 

(d) The spiritual unrest and longing occa- 
sioned by the disintegration of the old religions 
and philosophies call for an increase in the num- 
ber of missionaries if these people are to have an 
adequate opportunity to know the religion of 
Jesus Christ. What we do for these people must 
be done now. They are groping in the dark. 
Many of them are going towards the light, and 
unless we show the way to the Father’s house 
and the Father’s heart, they will not find the way 
home. Tens of thousands are losing their faith 
in the religion of their forefathers and are drift- 
ing into agnosticism or atheism, and unless we 
win them for Christ, their latter state will be 
worse than their first. The spiritual unrest of 


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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


the non-Christian world makes this the time of 
times to send out those who can tell them of the 
great Rest-giver. 

(e) Not only because of the old religions and 
philosophies, but also because of the renewed 
activities of non-Christian religions and philoso- 
phies in non-Christian countries. The inroads 
which Christianity is making in many countries 
have led to a revival of non-Christian systems. In 
Japan the Buddhists have adopted the methods 
of the Christian Church. In India there is an 
active propaganda on the part of the Mohamme- 
dans, Hindus, etc. 

6. More missionaries are needed if an adequate 
force of workers is ever to be sent to the coun- 
tries which the Church ordinarily thinks of as 
being adequately occupied. 

The reasons given above show in the abstract 
that there is a great need for more missionaries 
everywhere, and what is true in the abstract 
and in general, stands out more urgently when 
we consider those countries which many of us 
think of as adequately occupied by Christian 
forces. 

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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED ? 


(a) Japan has sometimes been considered as a 
mission field where the foreign missionary could 
be dispensed with. That this is not the case is 
evident from the recent testimony of mission- 
aries. One of them writes: “In every place the 
spiritual fields are white already to harvest, and 
there has never before been such a wealth of 
opportunity to spread the gospel. In every one 
of our districts the permanent residence of a 
foreign missionary would be welcomed, and the 
Christians would be greatly encouraged and 
strengthened by his presence, not to mention the 
evangelists. Whatever cause there may have 
been in the past for hesitation about strengthen- 
ing the evangelistic work because of doubt about 
the attitude of the Japanese towards foreigners is 
now dispelled, and to-day all places are open and 
we are sure of a welcome everywhere. Now is 
the time for whole-hearted effort to meet the 
demands.” 

(b) From Mexico one of the missionaries 
writes that “the people are crying bitterly be- 
cause they are deprived of the opportunities for 
Christian education. Letters come in continu- 


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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 
ally begging for books and workers. ‘We are 
brutes, and our people must be left to be brutes. 
They have taken away our one hope in shutting 
up the schools,’ said one native Mexican.” 

(c) The doors of eighteen provinces of China 
are wide open. There are now in the Empire 
4,175 missionaries, 2,027 Chinese church organ- 
izations, and 177,724 Protestant church members. 
But what are these in a population of over 400,- 
000,000? The unfinished task in China is still 
gigantic, and the unreached populations can only 
be estimated in millions. There are in China 
1,557 cities without missionaries. Where is there 
a greater call for city missionaries? And we 
must not forget the villages and the vast multi- 
tudes of people living in the country districts. 
The appeal from these is no less appalling. The 
intellectual awakening is such that a vast army 
of Christian teachers is needed, and needed im- 
mediately. And not only is there a call for medi- 
cal men who will go out and minister to the 
physical needs of the people, but immediately 
there should be established in strategic centres in 
China thoroughly equipped medical schools in 


I2 


ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


order to bring into existence the medical profes- 
sion for the Chinese people. 

(d) The success of Christian missions in Korea 
constitutes one of the marvels of modern Church 
history. Christianity has secured a foothold in 
greater or less degree in almost every county in 
the country. The growth of the Christian Church 
has been wonderful. The Church membership, 
however, is but a small percentage of the 12,000,- 
ooo population. Those who know the situation 
best say that the present missionary force should 
be doubled if the present results are to be con- 
served. 

(e) India is one of the most widely known 
mission fields, yet in the central provinces there 
are vast regions, almost wholly unoccupied, 
awaiting pioneer effort. In Bagheikhand, with 
an area of 14,323 square miles and a population 
of 1,555,024, there is no mission work whatever. 
In Bundelkhand, with an area of 9,851 Square 
miles and a population of 1,308,326, there are 
eight native States, only one of which has a mis- 
sion station. In Gwalior Residency, with a popu- 
lation of 2,069,421, there is only a single mission 


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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 





station, while in the Bhopal Agency, with a pop- 
ulation of 1,267,526, there are only two places 
where missionary work is carried on. These are 
illustrations of conditions which prevail in other 
parts of India. The unfinished task in that great 
Empire is calling for a large multiplication in the 
number of workers. 

7. More missionaries are needed if the un- 
occupied mission fields are ever to be occu- 
pied. . 

(a) In South America, Central Brazil with its 
large Indian population, French Guiana without 
a Protestant missionary and Northern Patagonia 
are utterly neglected. 

(b) In the island world, Socotra, once Chris- 
tian but now wholly Moslem; Southern Sumatra, 
still pagan but in danger of becoming Moham- 
medan, and the 400,000 Mohammedans of the 
Philippines, are some of the fields wholly unoc- 
cupied, awaiting pioneer effort. 

(c) In Asia, the following countries are prac- 
tically without mission stations: Afghanistan, 
Anam, Western and Southern Arabia, Bokhara, 
Chinese Turkestan, Russian Turkestan, Khiva, 


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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 
Nepal, Siberia and Tibet. These lands represent 
a total population of no less than 37,000,000. 

(d) Africa is still calling for light-bearers to 
bring the torch of divine Truth and a Christian 
civilization. More missionaries are needed to ex- 
plore and occupy for Christ the following coun- 
tries: Baghirmi, Bornu, Dar-fur, Fezzan, the Ivory 
Coast, Portuguese Guinea, Rio de Oro, Senegal, 
Senegambia, Sokoto, British and Italian Somali- 
land and Wadai. The moral and social condi- 
tions that prevail in these lands, the almost uni- 
versal illiteracy and the possibility of entering 
them, all unite in a plea that should be irresistible 
for pioneer missionaries to lay the foundations 
of the Christian Church that is to be. If we could 
but realize for a single hour the every-day con- 
ditions of Mohammedan womanhood or pagar 
childhood in darkest Africa, the vision itself 
would voice the need. 

The appeal of the unoccupied fields is an ap- 
peal to hasten the return of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. “This gospel of the kingdom must first 
be preached in all the world for a witness, and 
then shall the end come.” Some of these unoccu- 


15 


ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


pied fields have been neglected for centuries, and 
some of them are the most difficult fields in the 
world. The hardest tasks have been left to the 
last. 


Sudden, before my inward, open vision, 
Millions of faces crowded up to view, 

Sad eyes that said: “For us is no provision ; 
Give us your Savior, too!”’ 


Sorrowful women’s faces, hungry, yearning, 
Wild with despair, or dark with sin and dread, 

Worn with long weeping for the unreturning, 
Hopeless, uncomforted. 


‘““Give us!” they cry, ‘Your cup of consolation 
Never to our outstretching hands is passed, 
We long for the Desire of every nation, 
And oh, we die so fast!” 


8. Not only is there a need for more mission- 
aries but the demand—the absolute requirement 
—is for missionaries of the highest qualifications. 
They must be men and women not only of best 
intellectual training but of superb spiritual quali- 
ties. They go to represent our Lord Jesus 
Christ. They must reproduce Him in their daily 
walk and life. The present crisis and opportunity 
in the occupied fields and the peculiar difficulties 

16 


ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED ? 


that remain to challenge our faith and devotion 
in the unoccupied fields of the world unite in a 
demand for the highest qualifications in the mis- 
Sionaries appointed. The need is qualitative as 
well as quantitative. “Let us pray,” said Dr. 
Warneck in his letter to the Student Volunteer 
Convention at Liverpool, “not merely for more 
missionaries, but above all for suitable mission- 
aries—men mature enough to face the increased 
tasks. We need in the mission field men and 
women who possess Christian characters, firmly 
grounded in the faith, established in love, ex- 
emplary in their life, and tried in patience, as 
well as fitted with natural gifts and sterling edu- 
cation, authorities by dint of spiritual superiority 
and educators by dint of pedagogic wisdom.” 
The men who go out to lead the Church in 
Korea, Japan, China and India must be men of 
sterling character, great initiative and with spir- 
itual power of leadership. A pastor in one of the 
native churches in China recently sent an appeal 
to a Mission Board for additional workers, in 
these words: “‘ The land of China is extensive, and 
its people are many, and to-day is the day of war- 


17 


ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


fare between Christ and Satan for the prize of 
this great empire. Therefore, if your Excel- 
lencies are truly in earnest in the desire that 
Christ may sing aloud the song of victory here, 
we, the little children who have already received 
your favor, open our mouths widely and be- 
seech you to increase the number of generals. 
Of these, the more sent the better, and the more 
speedily, the better... This is the desire of my 
heart.” What the pastor of the church at Poa-a 
expressed so vividly is also urged by Mr. Robert 
E. Speer. “The day is passing,” he says, “if it 
is not already long past, when missionaries can 
stand any more on the strength of their racial 
superiority, or on the strength of their adminis- 
trative control of the funds of the home churches. 
They have got to stand now on their moral su- 
periority, on their intellectual superiority, on’ 
their spiritual superiority, on their superiority as 
men, or they have no superiority on which to 
stand.” The demand is for the very best the 
Church can produce. 

This united demand for missionaries of the 
highest qualities—spiritual and intellectual—and 

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ARE MORE FOREIGN MISSIONARIES NEEDED? 


in greatly increased numbers which comes up 
from the vast fields “white already unto the 
harvest,” can only be met by the offer of life 
Service on the part of men and women in our 
colleges and universities. The character of the 
work to be done limits the field for possible re- 
cruits for this world-wide conquest. 

Ion Keith-Falconer closed one of his addresses 
to the students of Edinburgh and Glasgow Uni- 
versities with a sentence which, in the light of 
the facts set forth in the preceding pages, is even 
a stronger appeal to the students of to-day: 

“While vast continents are shrouded in almost 
utter darkness, and hundreds of millions suffer 
the horrors of heathenism and of Islam, the bur- 
den of proof rests on you to show that the cir- 
cumstances in which God has placed you were 
meant by God to keep you out of the foreign 
field.” 

Copies of this pamphlet may be ordered from the Student 
Volunteer Movement, 125 East 27th Street, New York City, 


at 5c. each, 4oc. per dozen, $2.50 per hundred, express charges 
prepaid. 


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